Royal HaskoningDHV has been selected to, as part of a consortium, deliver seven so-called Quietways for cyclists. The £120 million project will be led by Sustrans who has been awarded a three-year contract by Transport for London to deliver the new roads for cyclists in the UK capital.

QuietwaysThe seven ‘Quietways’* will be opened early 2015 and provide cyclists in London with “direct, pleasant, back-street alternatives to busy main roads.” The new roads differ from the old London Cycle Network as they will be clearly signed and largely unsegregated, to prevent cyclists from getting lost. The old network will be updated with way-marking, surfacing improvements, removing barriers and improving the flow of the route. In cases where directness demands Quietways to briefly join main roads, full segregation and crossing points will be provided.

Commenting on the Quietways, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, says: “If you would love to hop on a bike but feel intimidated by busier roads, these Quietway routes will be perfect, connecting parks, backstreets and waterways to create secret passages through London. They will make cycling much more accessible for ordinary people, in their ordinary clothes, revealing some of London’s hidden gems along the way.”

UK walking and cycling charity Sustrans was awarded the three-year contract by Transport for London to help deliver its first Quietways, a project with a value of £120 million. To do so, the charity will lead a consortium of four transport, engineering and road safety organisations: Dutch-origin services firm Royal HaskoningDHV, UK specialist in urban design and cycle design Phil Jones Associates, inclusive cycling leader Wheels for Wellbeing, and road safety and cycle design firm Local Transport Projects.

The team of five will work together with local boroughs and other partners whose roads will be used for the Quietways. The construction of the first two routes, running from central London to Greenwich and Hackney, will start soon and is expected to be finished in May 2015. The other five routes are in the designing stage and another two dozen are expected to be delivered or in progress by 2016.

* The first seven Quietways will be: Waterloo to Greenwich, Bloomsbury to Walthamstow, Regents Park/Marylebone to Gladstone Park in Dollis Hill, Waterloo to Crystal Palace, Aldgate to Hainault, Waterloo to Wimbledon, and Clapham Common to Croydon.